Eva Tihanyi

Eva Tihanyi was born in Budapest, Hungary, and came to Canada at the age of six. She has published five books of poetry and a collection of short stories, and has taught at Niagara College in Welland, Ontario, since 1989. For further information visit her website: www.evatihanyi.com

Questions & Answers

Is there a specific moment that inspired you to pursue poetry?

Not one specific “moment” but I knew when I took my first creative writing class in Grade Ten that poetry was something I could become passionate about. I had a remarkable English teacher named Jack Clark, whose encouragement set me on my course.

How/where do you find inspiration today?

Everywhere and in everything. It’s all about paying attention.

What is your writing process?

Like most writers, I keep a notebook in which I record images, ideas, phrases. It is out of these that poems eventually grow. I am most productive in the early morning.

What is your revision/editing process?

I let a poem sit and keep revisiting it until I feel that it is time to let it go.

Did you write poetry in high school? If yes, how did you get started? If no, why not?

Yes, I began writing poetry in high school. As I said in a previous answer, my English teacher was instrumental.

Do you use any resources that a young poet would find useful (e.g. websites, text books, etc.)?

I have a book of synonyms that has come in very handy over the years (even more so than the thesaurus).

When you were high school aged, what would have been helpful/motivating to hear from a published poet?

That poetry matters. That it can be beautiful and powerful and magical. That talent is not enough; it must be sparked by passion and fueled by craft. That writing is its own reward.


Works by Eva Tihanyi

PoetryBook ReviewsBook Reviews of Author

Poetry by Eva Tihanyi

Book Reviews by Eva Tihanyi

Excesses
By Eva Tihanyi
Published in Poets’ Words. Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 115 (Winter 1987): 200-202.
  • Post-Sixties Nocturne by Pier Giorgio Di Cicco
  • The Invisible World Is in Decline by Bruce Whiteman
  • Blind Zone by Steven Smith

Book Reviews of Eva Tihanyi's Works